


The Love of a Hero

by quartetship



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Falling In Love, First Kiss, Getting Together, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-09
Updated: 2016-09-09
Packaged: 2018-08-14 00:01:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7991188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quartetship/pseuds/quartetship
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>That guy's my hero.</i>
</p><p> </p><p>Lance had always idolized Shiro, but never had he dared to believe they would grow to be as close as they had become...</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Love of a Hero

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, hi, here I am taking a break from my usual pairings to write what sadly seems to be a rare pair around here? Even though it's?? a really good ship?? Anyway, have some Q-Brand Fluff!
> 
> Thanks in advance for reading! Hope you enjoy! 
> 
> \--

_‘That guy’s my hero.’_

Lance had always idolized Shiro, from the moment he had first laid eyes on him. The way Shiro moved, the way he spoke - everything about him radiated authority, professionalism and confidence. Even if he hadn't been built like a Greek God and one of the most beautiful guys Lance had ever laid eyes on, Shiro still would have won Lance’s adoration with his incredible talent and humble sweetness.

He was everything Lance wanted to be, and many of the things he couldn't yet dare to admit that wanted in a lover, as well.

That was a moot point, though. Lance doubted in his years as a cadet that he would ever have the chance to know Shiro on a personal level, and certainly never dreamed he would work with him closely enough to call him a friend. He admired him from a distance, a hero upon a pedestal.

When the Voltron thing happened, Lance’s head spun for days in his private moments. Shiro was there, Shiro was talking to him, Shiro was his teammate, treating him like an equal, like a _friend._ It was a lot to take in, but Lance held his head high among the others, determined to share Shiro’s confidence, even if it was entirely staged.

He hoped no one could tell. Keith sure as hell couldn't. He and Lance bickered endlessly, owing - to hear Keith explain it - to Lance’s ‘ridiculous bravado’ and his ‘being an arrogant ass’. Lance took the insults as they were slung his way, wearing them proudly, like scars of battle, marks that showed he was playing his part exactly as he intended. Better a smug asshole than a lacking loser, something Lance was acutely aware of feeling like, in the presence of the others.

Still, he needed the others around him.

Space was lonely. Outside of the adventure and the death defying terror that their daily missions were, the quiet moments in the castle of lions were _achingly_ lonesome, and Lance longed for the company of other humans outside the few he was stuck there alongside. Not that he didn't like his teammates; if he had to be marooned there, at least Pidge and Hunk were with him, reminders of the life he'd lived before the night that Shiro had returned to it. Even Keith wasn't that bad, when it came to relieving the isolation Lance felt. As long as he wasn't entirely alone, it made it a little easier to ignore just how much he missed home.

But the melancholy mood never really lifted. Not entirely.

No matter how many beautiful, alien women he flirted with, no matter how many planets he and his cohort saved, no matter how much he accomplished toward becoming the person he pretended to be, nothing eased the ache of missing the people and the planet he had left behind. There was little he could do to change it, and talking to Coran or Allura only made him feel worse, like he might as well accept his fate, and be glad that earth was at least still _there_ to go back to, one day. It only made the sting of hearing it mentioned by the others all the sharper.

So Lance stewed in his own sadness, and kept it buried alongside everything else he was hiding, like every other feeling he had locked away.

That was where Shiro found him, sulking in his own feelings one evening, as he was so wont to do. Lance was embarrassed; he kept his moping secret for that very reason, so the person he cared most about impressing wouldn't see him at his weakest. It only took one soft, searching look from Shiro though, and Lance’s carefully crafted image was tumbling down around him.

“You don't have to handle all of this on your own,” Shiro said, as if he already knew exactly how Lance was feeling. Taking a seat beside him where he was curled on the floor, watching the stars drift by through a large observation window, he laid an arm across Lance’s shoulders. “I know you want to be strong. We all do. But you don't have to be strong all the time.”

“Says you,” Lance grinned, sniffing back the congestion that threatened to turn into tears. He scrambled to preserve some scrap of his dignity by teasing, but he was leaning into Shiro by then, barely aware of his actions, much less able to control them. He sighed, knowing he was defeated before he had even started to struggle. “You always seem so strong. Keith too. Everybody - I have to keep up. And besides,” Lance shrugged, swallowing the thickness in his throat. “I don't have as much to be upset about as the rest of you guys do. I'm just a bratty kid who misses his mom.”

The words stung, leaving him; they sounded so sour as they hit his ears, abuse against the facade he'd worked so hard on creating for himself. But it was the truth, to his mind, and if Shiro brought anything out of him, it was always - sometimes unfortunately - the truth. Lance shook his head, dragging a hand down the length of his face, sighing into his palm. There was a pull against him, and then Shiro was leaning into him as well.

“We all have to fall apart sometimes. Your reason is as good as any of ours. You've just got to trust the rest of us to pull you back together when it happens.” Shiro held his shoulders, like he needed Lance to know that he would be the one to do that pulling together, if necessary. Lance swallowed, overcome. There was nothing he could say that would communicate the myriad emotions he was battling. He settled for a silent nod, letting himself linger in Shiro’s embrace, as long as it was offered.

For the rest of that evening, they sat there, with quiet talking and friendly smiles exchanged until the ache in Lance’s chest began to ease. He was able to sleep that night, at last. If the dreams he had were sweeter than usual - images of Shiro’s eyes, sparkling as they scanned Lance’s face, scrunching at the corners when he laughed at Lance’s lame jokes - he kept them to himself. That was what he was used to doing, after all.

That particular habit was beginning to change, though.

As the unnamed, unnumbered days passed in the strangeness of space, Lance found that he was left to reflect on his loneliness less and less. The other paladins became more like a family to him, without once trying to force him to forget the one he'd left back home. As things fell into place to make foreign galaxies feel more like his own backyard, Lance began to relax, if only a little. And in letting his guard down, he found that Shiro was nearly always beside him, protecting, guiding, laughing, smiling - always within reach, and unafraid to do the reaching, himself.

It was almost as if Shiro wanted that closeness as much as he did.

At first, Lance wouldn't let himself believe it. Shiro cared for all of them, took care of everybody. There was no reason for him to let himself believe he was anything special, not to Shiro, to the _leader of the defenders of the universe._ He was everything anybody would want, and could have anybody in the universe he wanted, in turn. Lance had no cause for thinking he was worth Shiro’s time beyond the care of a teammate and friend.

So it was strange, surreal even, when Shiro began to linger with him after battles, after meals, after hours, just to _talk._ It didn't make sense, when Keith or Pidge or even Hunk clearly had just as much right to Shiro’s time, if not more. Yet Shiro chose him, again and again, and Lance was not about to push away the one thing holding him up on days when he felt like crumbling.

He would treasure his time with Shiro as long as he could, the starstruck young man inside him still vibrating every time they brushed against one another, every time Shiro stared across the room in his direction. Lance held every moment close to his heart, never vocalizing just how thankful he was for each one. In the end, he didn't need to say it aloud; Shiro beat him to it.

“I'm so glad you're alright,” he whispered, pulling Lance in close after they had landed one evening, the universe once again saved, just for the moment. Metal fingers carding through Lance’s hair, he sighed, audible relief as Lance slipped an arm around his waist in turn. Shiro’s heart was hammering in his chest; Lance could feel it through both of their paladin armor. Swallowing, he looked up at Shiro, surprise impossible to hide on his face. Shiro smiled, warm and wide and overcome.

“I'm sorry, I know I - I try not to do this and put you on the spot, I just - when the blue lion went down earlier, I thought-” He didn't seem to be able to finish a thought, shoulders shaking with silent, nervous laughter. Lance hardly recognized his level-headed leader, looking like a man falling apart in front of him. But this was the Shiro that he had come to know in times of quiet, in the times between missions and mayhem - this was the Shiro that Lance had fallen in love with, and that realization hit him all at once.

This was also a man that loved him in return, and the look in Shiro’s eyes made it impossible to talk himself out of, anymore.

Lance nodded, moving to loop arms around Shiro’s neck, drape them over his shoulder and linger there while he looked at Shiro for a moment, just reminding him that they were both alright. Maybe they wouldn't be, the next day; it was the nature of the job that neither of them had signed up for. For the moment though, everything was okay. Shiro was there, looking at Lance like he was seeing the earthly sun again, and Lance tightened his hold and pulled Shiro in for a hug. For a little while, he held him there, Shiro’s hands finding their way down his back, along his sides, until they were wrapped up in one another, closer than Lance had ever dared to dream that they would be.

They might have stayed that way forever, but the others were there too, and there were things to be done, a meal to be eaten, and debriefing to be had, all before they could sleep that night. Reluctantly, Lance let Shiro go, but the warmth of those strong arms around him lingered on his skin for the rest of the evening. Even if it were the last time he ever felt them there, Lance was certain he would never forget the feeling.

He didn't have to rely on his memory for long.

After everything had gone silent for the night, there was a soft knock at his door, and Lance nearly tripped over his own feet, bolting to answer it.

Shiro’s smiling face was behind it, amusement clear on his features at the way Lance nearly fell into his arms. But then he was gathering Lance into them anyway, stepping into his room, and as the door closed behind them, everything Lance had been feeling for months spilled out of him, filling the air around them with warm, hushed whispers, confessions and sighs of Shiro’s name.

“Sorry if I was weird earlier,” he breathed, almost wheezing as Shiro pulled him in against his chest, “I didn't know if - I didn't wanna upset you or like jump into anything, I just…” Lance buried his face in the crook of Shiro’s neck and shoulder, breathing deeply. He had never imagined he could be so close to him, and yet in that moment, he couldn’t imagine being anywhere else. Shiro let his head fall against Lance’s, almost nuzzling against him, humming low in his throat, a sound that was undeniably happy, satisfied.

“It's okay,” he assured. “I understand. I should have talked to you first. I shouldn't have acted the way I did, but - Lance, after today I don't think I can pretend things are the same anymore.”

“The same?” Lance muttered, dazed. Truthfully, he knew exactly what Shiro meant. They had been dancing around one another for so long, and on that day they had finally collided, right in front of everyone. Gravity would never let them pull themselves apart from one another again, and Lance knew it as well as Shiro did.

He needed to hear it, though. Shiro was more than willing to give him that.

“You’re so special to me, Lance. You-” he gestured between them, inhaling sharply- “You and I - _this_ means so much. I've tried for so long to just be your teammate, to treat you like everyone else, all the time. But I just… I _can't_ anymore.” His fingers found their way into Lance’s hair, breath stuttering. Lance shook his head, careful not to shake Shiro away from him in doing so.

“Why?” He whispered. As quietly as he spoke, their voices were loud to his ears, echoing in the silent room. His pulse thundered in his ears, or maybe it was Shiro’s heartbeat again, audible, as close as they were. Lance looked at him, unblinking. “Why pretend? Why not just…” He pulled Shiro closer, inches away from his face by then. Shiro frowned.

“You don't need all the baggage I bring with me,” he said honestly. “I knew you looked up to me, but I didn't want you mistaking it for something else. I didn't want… I didn't want to fall in love with you, and make things complicated.”

“But you did,” Lance said boldly. He wasn't sure where the strength for it came from, but less than a breath away from the face of the man he had grown to absolutely adore, he could hardly stop talking. “You love me, don't you? You love me and I love you and we can do this, Shiro. We can have this. It doesn't matter what skeletons you have in the closet or what shit you've been through - I wanna keep doin’ this with you, and if you want me too, you gotta say it right now. Because there's no way to know if we’ll… t-to know if…” Lance swallowed, his throat closing off. He hadn't been able to feign a cool head in front of Shiro in a very long time, so falling to pieces in his arms that night wasn't as embarrassing as it might have been.

Shiro did not laugh, did not tease him. He didn't even smile. Instead he looked at Lance like a person consumed with hunger, starvation long simmering, that couldn't be satiated. But it could - Lance was right there in front of him. He needed Shiro to know that.

Nosing against his face, he waited for Shiro to respond. There was a long stretch of silence, and every moment in the previous months flashed before Lance’s mind’s eye, thoughts of his one time hero becoming his leader, his teammate, his friend - and the love he hadn't known he was looking for. He was so lost in the swirl of his memories that he nearly missed Shiro’s soft murmur against his ear, a question in place of an answer.

“Can I kiss you, Lance?”

There was no spoken response, only Lance leaning up and into Shiro’s space, letting Shiro gently cup his chin and guide their lips together. Lance sighed against Shiro’s mouth, his kiss hot and slow and sweet, everything he had ever dreamed that it would be. Most importantly, it was Lance’s to savor. He added it to the list of perfect things about Shiro that he kept in his mind, and melted against him, happiness swelling in his chest.

When they finally parted, it was only the breathless, beautiful look on Shiro’s face that made Lance feel okay with pulling away. He had seen that softness there before, but never so much of it, never so focused right back at him. He reached up to trace fingers along Shiro’s jaw, fingers that Shiro turned his head to kiss, and smiled into the touch of.

Smiling. _Finally._

Lance needed to keep that smile there - to be the reason for it - for as long as he could.

“I meant what I said, you know. All of it. I don't care about anything that's happened before. I just… I just want this with you.” It was still hard to say it so plainly, but Lance _made_ himself be clear. Shiro watched him, listening, and after a few quiet moments of thinking, he nodded, still holding Lance’s hands in his.

“I want this with you too.” He pressed a kiss against Lance’s palm, to the back of his hand and then his wrist, smiling as he did. Lance shook his head, laughter bubbling up from his chest that made Shiro grin even wider, to raise an eyebrow, quietly inquiring.

“No idea why,” Lance said, admitting to his insecurity like it was a joke to be made. “M’nothing special. But I'm glad you want me, all the same.”

“You _are_ special,” Shiro argued, echoing his words from moments before. “You have no idea, Lance. I've met so many people - human and otherwise - and there's no one in the universe like you. You're so full of life; you make me feel more like living. And no matter what happens, you're always the same. You're exactly who you are, all the time. I love that about you.”

Lance shrugged, feeling his ears burn a little at Shiro’s praise. “I'm really only like that with you,” he admitted. “I try to keep it together for everyone else. Used to try to do it for you, too. But you make it hard to be anybody other than me.”

Shiro chuckled, leaning forward to press his forehead to Lance’s. “I'm glad. I’m pretty fond of you.”

“Right back at you, boss.” Lance teased, poking his tongue out as he did. Shiro rolled his eyes, and for a moment, nothing was different; they were still Shiro and Lance, the same people they had always been, and Lance knew then that he wouldn't have to be anyone else, ever again. There was a new softness though, an unchecked fondness that made itself evident in the warmth with which Shiro watched him, the way he held him close, for as long as Lance would let him. Lance was happy to let that timeframe stretch out for hours without interruption. Between kisses and cuddles - hands exploring skin that they would undoubtedly map further, in the days ahead - he basked in the sweet words Shiro heaped upon him, finally free to say exactly what he wanted to.

“You're incredible, Lance. I don't tell you that enough. I know that things out here aren't fun for any of us, but I can't tell you enough how much I admire your spirit. You're so valuable to this team, and - you're irreplaceable to me.”

Lance felt his blush spreading down his neck, across his chest and shoulders, his skin warm against the coolness of Shiro’s metal arm where it lay draped across him. Smiling despite the fact that he felt like he was melting, he nodded into Shiro’s chest, laughing at just how much his world had changed that day - and how far the two of them had come, since he'd first seen him all those months before.

“Yeah, well. Thanks. For what it's worth though, I wouldn't be anything without you. You're a great leader, but you're also the best person I've ever met. You put up with so much and you still manage to care about the rest of us and do so much to help everyone in the whole damned universe, and - you're my hero.”

There was quiet between them then, and for a long time after. The two of them lay there, reclined on Lance’s bed as they breathed in the moment, together. There was no way to tell what the morning would bring, and the future was as frightening as it was uncertain. But with hands to hold and tender words to hear in moments of stillness, there would be something for both of them to look forward to, something to soothe weary souls and comfort lonely hearts. Lance still put Shiro on a pedestal above anyone and everyone else, but it wasn't simply because he was a hero. It was because he _loved_ him, had never loved and _been_ loved so deeply in his entire life.

It was more than he had ever imagined he could have, all the more reason to be glad for it. The love of his hero had become the love of his life. It was everything he'd never known he wanted, and everything he needed, for as long as the universe would let him hold it close to his heart.


End file.
